Revolution by Candlelight: How South Koreans Toppled a Government

On March 11, 2017, hundreds of thousands of Koreans rejoiced in downtown Seoul after the country's parliament and constitutional court confirmed the impeachment of President Park Guen-hye on bribery and corruption charges. The "Celebration of Democracy" was a political Mardi Gras, s, with floats and costumes and women dancing under bright green electrified umbrellas. On the streets of Seoul, "the people are sovereign!" signs signaled that, for the first time in South Korea's sixty-nine-year history, a broad spectrum of society had the chance to steer the country's course in a nonviolent, public forum. This kind of people power looks much different from the vitrivitriolic, racist, and misogynistic politics undergirding the right-wing populism on the rise around the world. On May 9, Moon Jae-in was elected South Korea's new president, and his first executive order established a commission to create jobs and combat structural inequality. This was because these issues—not North Korean missiles—fueled the winter 2017 revolution.